[digitalmdj]

With the type of bearings the spindle has 3000 rpm is just about max. And even if it was american made it will be no better for the size of machine. The problem is with quality control the chinese have none. With the rising cost of fuel and food. They wont sell very many machines until after the recession we are going through. So by that time they might improve but at this point it's hasn't happened. They need to improve on the castings . The earlier castings were better than the newer ones. They took a step backwards and they need to stop cutting corners before they cant sell anything because people will want quality for the money they are spending.

[smallblock]

These machines are designed as inexpensive home shop units, and the heavy cast iron pulleys will limit the spindle speeds to about 3000 rpm regardless of the bearings. If you are going to spend a lot of money on ground ball screws for the table motions, you will need to re-design the entire spindle assembly, or all your time and money will be wasted. You might be better off to concentrate on the lathe and mill spindles first to determine how fast and accuratly you can get them to run, and then based on that result decide if ground or rolled ball screws are the better choice.

[Sprint 77]

I decided to go with a REX industries ballscrew from homeshopCNC . The Y axis will take a gear to gear reverse direction to get teh handle to feed the same direction as before . The factory acme in a shoptask is left hand.

I do need some help with a post though. I will be designing in Solidworks 2010 then going to Gibscam 2007 then to Mach .
This will be my next hurdle.
I am thinking of running a DB 25 Switch box calling one pinout lathe and one Mill so I still program in conventional lathe and mill coordinates Mill XYZ and lathe X Z
Will THis Work?

[dgapilot]

An easier solution is to have 2 setups in Mach3. One for the mill and one for the lathe. In the profile setup, you can specify which pins control which motor, so it can all be done in mach.

[SIMONSIGNS]

Nice looking piece of kit there!
I been wanting to try to build one like this for a while. I guess I should pull my finger out, stop talking about it and get on with it.

[Sprint 77]

An easier solution is to have 2 setups in Mach3. One for the mill and one for the lathe. In the profile setup, you can specify which pins control which motor, so it can all be done in mach.

That sounds much easier just wasn't sure if Mach software would do it. I will be spending some time in the Mach threads here soon after get these ballscrews in.
I got a toolpost grinder coming to fit the screws.